5 men pose as cops, hijack van loaded with P400K worth of sardines

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MANILA, Philippines — Five armed men who posed as members of the Highway Patrol Group (HPG) of the Philippine National Police hijacked on Monday a van carrying P400,000 worth of sardines on Osmeña Highway in Makati City.

Christopher Morales, the driver of the Canter van with plate number DAE 122, told police investigators that he and his two helpers were on their way to deliver the 349 boxes of Young’s Town Sardines to SM Sucat in Parañaque City, when a man on a police motorcycle with blinkers flagged down the vehicle at 5 a.m.

“He [asked] us to pull over. We did so because we thought we had committed a traffic violation,” Morales said.

The policeman who was in a light blue T-shirt with the word “Pulis” (police) written on it then asked Morales and his helpers to alight from the van and show him their identification papers.

As they did so, four men armed with cal. .38 and cal. .45 firearms got out of a green van and dragged them back into the delivery van where they were tied up and ordered to lie down.

The hijackers then took over the van and drove off before dropping Morales and his helpers on the C-5 Extension in Las Piñas City.

“We thought [the hijackers] were going to kill us,” Morales said.

The case investigator, SPO2 Rodrigo Igno, said they would check the area where the hijacking took place to determine if closed circuit television cameras recorded the hi-jacking.